OpenAI Partners with Major Government Contractor to ‘Transform Federal Operations’

According to a press release Thursday, OpenAI just partnered with a major government contractor called Leidos to « deploy artificial intelligence in support of national priorities, including increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of government agencies. » The title of the release describes what Leidos and OpenAI are doing as « deploying AI to transform federal operations. »

With an estimated market capitalization of $24 billion, Leidos is one of those big corporations like Sun Microsystems or Oracle that are apparently beloved by the powers that be, despite not having — or apparently wanting — much in the way of a publicly-focused brand.

The new agreement between Leidos and OpenAI is focused on integrating OpenAI products into federal government workflows around national security, defense, infrastructure and more. Ted Tanner, CTO of Leidos, said in the company’s press release, « Leidos and OpenAI are harnessing the transformative power of AI to help improve the way federal agencies operate. »

Leidos is deeply embedded in the federal government and involved in things like procurement and logistics, apparently navigating all the confusing legacy software systems that famously snared budget-cutters at DOGE last year during the DOGE frenzy.

But Leidos in particular got off easy amid DOGE’s budget cuts, with DOGE announcing last February that it had terminated a $1 billion Leidos contract and then just kidding and a reassessment of the value of the canceled contract at $560,000. A Leidos spokesman, Brandon Ver Velde, told the Times the following month: « We strongly support the goal of creating a significantly more efficient and effective federal government that costs taxpayers less money. »

According to a 2023 statement from Roy Stevens, president of what Leidos calls the Homeland Sector, the company has a « strong relationship with DHS. » Leidos’ roles at the time included, according to Stevens, « supporting interagency intelligence sharing and secure cooperation for federal and civilian agencies, » in the interest of helping « DHS fulfill its mission to protect the homeland. »

Prior to this partnership with Leidos, there was already an OpenAI product called OpenAI for Government. In OpenAI’s blog post announcing OpenAI for government, OpenAI indicated that it had won a contract with the Pentagon « capped at $200 million. » Prior to this contract, OpenAI had government contracts at « US National Laboratories⁠, the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, NIH, and the Department of the Treasury. »

Gizmodo reached out to OpenAI for comment on Leidos’ work with the Department of Homeland Security — noting that it’s the umbrella organization for the controversial agencies Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) (which includes Border Patrol) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We’ll update if we hear back.